Ron vs. Whitebeard (44)

"Cough, cough... That really hurt, Whitebeard."

Just as he thought that, Ron's strong, vigorous voice rang out from the ground nearby.

Fujitora was extremely grateful that Observation Haki could not clearly see things. Otherwise, he could not imagine what the thing making those sticky, squelching "crack-crack" noises on Ron's body was.

"Monster!!"

Whitebeard knelt on one knee, breathing heavily as he spoke with a grim expression.

Before his eyes was a body whose flesh had been torn away in a palm-wide strip, stretching horizontally from the shoulder down to the hip.

An ordinary person would undoubtedly die from such a severe injury. Even Whitebeard himself believed that, if he suffered such wounds, he could only quietly await death.

Yet what appeared before him now was the sight of muscles and tendons twisting and coiling like snakes, endlessly intertwining.

The wriggling flesh buds seemed alive. Following a rhythm and pattern filled with eerie strangeness, they slowly wove and wrapped around that terrifying wound.

Clack!

Fragments of shattered ribs lodged deep within the layers of chest flesh were carried by crimson muscles, drifting toward their proper places like leaves floating along a stream.

Bone rapidly regenerated from the broken ends and connected to them, reforming the ribcage as support.

Then those flesh buds "crawled" upward like morning glories sped up a thousandfold, piling into clearly defined blocks of muscle before a layer of skin covered them, and then...

And then there was nothing more.

Ron swayed as he rose from the ground, the entire process taking less than thirty seconds.

Then he opened his eyes and stared at Whitebeard.

"I remember... BIG MOM said the same thing back then."

"And then?"

"Then she died!"

Ron gave a cold smile. The Thunder Dragon Halberd lying on the ground sprang into his palm, and